ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Comedy often inspires us. Be it watching standup in person or on TV, laughter really can be the best medicine. When legendary comedian Bob Saget died recently, it inspired one Rochester artist in another way.

When Lorraine Staunch puts brush to canvas, it opens a window.

What You Need To Know

  • Bob Saget was scheduled to play several shows at the Rochester comedy club Comedy at the Carlson in mid-February before his death in January

  • Lorraine Staunch’s Saget caricature painting now hangs it the corner of the Comedy at the Carlson

  • Staunch hopes her art leaves the same impression as the comedians she paints

“My favorite part of the eyes,” said Staunch, while painting in her Fairport home studio. “Because the eyes, they always say the windows to the soul, but they truly are.”

Details in caricature art are not always easy to capture. The joy. The mischief. The twinkle in the eye.

“I’ve always been really, really intrigued with people and what they're trying to get across,” she said.

Staunch began painting when she was 6 years old. By her early teen years, she sold her first piece of artwork. Now, some of her better known works focus on comedy.

“In a caricature, a lot of times you need to exaggerate a feature,” she said, while painting a caricature portrait of Rochester comedian Todd Youngman.

“They're not wrinkles that, you know, that age us,” said Staunch. “They’re laugh lines. They’re well earned.”

It was another comedian whose untimely death inspired her most recently. On Jan. 9, Bob Saget was found dead inside an Orlando hotel room. He was 65.

“It was a no brainer,” said Staunch, of her decision to paint a Saget caricature. “It had to be done.”

Saget was a stand-up comedian, actor and television host, best known for his role as Danny Tanner on the TV sitcom Full House. He was scheduled to play several shows at the Rochester comedy club Comedy at the Carlson in mid-February.

“It hit me like a ton of bricks that Bob Saget had passed because he had touched so many lives," said Staunch. “He was a nice guy and a very funny, funny person. He brought a lot of joy for all those years.”

“It was a very traumatic day,” said Comedy at the Carlson co-founder Mark Ippolito. “He was such a genuine, nice accessible guy, and he really truly cared. And he was just a great, great act."

Staunch’s Saget caricature painting now hangs it the corner of the club as a tribute.

“So it's like, yes, I saw him,” said Staunch. “And then it brings back all the memories of the time that you saw them either in person or you saw him on TV and a movie and you go ‘oh my God, nailed it!”’

The wall at the Carlson is a who’s who of comedy legends lost.

“It’s not just the first thing that you see as far as the paintings go, it's literally everywhere,” said Ippolito. “Lorraine's ability to capture their character, their personality, their soul in those paintings -- it's second to none.”

Staunch hopes her art leaves the same impression as the comedians she paints.

“There's so much negativity in the world,” she said. “It's a matter of every little bit we can do to negate that, and just add kindness, a kind word, a painting that makes you smile.”